Hayee arrest may lead to his accomplices - police

In a development that comes as a major breakthrough in the Daniel Pearl case, Multan police Thursday night caught a Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militant and head of Qari Asad Group, Qari Abdul Hayee in a surprise raid conducted at Basti Allah Buksh in Sher Sultan, District Muzaffargarh, said officials.

The arrest is seen as important, since those who carried out the actual killing in the case of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, abducted and then brutally murdered in January 2002, remain on the loose.

A senior police official, involved in the operation, said the accused was the mastermind behind Pearl's murder in Karachi. Officials did not confirm, but indicated that Qari Abdul Hayee could also lead them to others who had planned the crime.

A court has awarded the accused death sentence six times for an earlier terrorist attack in Muzzafargarh which killed six Shias, and the government had fixed Rs2 million on his arrest.

At present he was allegedly busy planning for suicide attacks in the country following tough action taken by the government against LJ activists, the officials said.

The initial investigation reports found that the accused, Qari Abdul Hayee alias Qari Assad alias Talah, was residing with his family in Karachi and he had reached Basti Allah Buksh, Sher Sultan, in Muzzafargarh a few days back to meet his in-laws.

A police informer informed Muzaffargarh District Police Officer (DPO) about his presence in the village. The DPO constituted a special team headed by two DSPs to raid the house of Qari's in laws. The links of Qari to the LJ go back a long way.

He was apparently persuaded to join the militant outfit after hearing the speeches of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) on audio cassette. When a man who belonged to the Sunni sect was shot dead in Alipur and more Sunnis were killed in the Lahore Rehman Mosque terrorism incident in the 1980s, Qari linked up with the LJ.

The police investigations revealed that Qari Abdul Hayee had thrown grenades on a Shia mosque in Sher Sultan and restored to indiscriminate firing along with his two accomplices on Friday on January 21, 1994.

About half a dozen people died on the spot and Sher Sultan police had registered a case against the accused under Sections 302-324-148-149, 13/20/65.

The investigation reports disclosed the accused had remained close aide of Riaz Basra, the LJ founder, and had met Taliban chief Mullah Omar once in Afghanistan during his stay there for five years.

The accused had financially helped the LJ activists and assisted Riaz Basra in militant training of LJ absconders in Afghanistan and he trained hundreds of terrorists. He is regarded as a specialist in bomb manufacturing and had shifted from Afghanistan to Karachi after the fall of Taliban regime.

Meanwhile, the LJ group divided into two groups after a series of internal differences and Qari formed his separate Qari Asad group led by Naeem Bokhari. He has been living in Karachi, PNT Colony, Zaman Town, since his return from Afghanistan.

At present, he was Imam at Jamia Siddiq Akbar mosque. The terrorist also formed a party Karawan Muhammad during the period of 1993-94.

Shehr Sultan police produced Hayee before Anti-Terrorism Court No 1 judge Abdul Qadir Shad on Friday for his remand and the court granted remand for two days.